Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I was just thinking about when Iraq was deemed safe enough to hold their FIRST DEMOCRATIC elections, and of course, the U.S. had to send people in to make sure that the elections were held in a fair and democratic way.

Hell - WE CAN'T EVEN DO THAT HERE AT HOME!!! For us to sit at the head of the proverbial table and dictate the "right" way to administer these foreign elections smacks of the ULTIMATE hypocrisy.

At this point in time - five days away from electing our next POTUS, and being the news junkie I am, I have found that the Republican party has mastered the art of manipulating our own electoral process more than any foreign entity.

We can cite the 2000 and 2004 elections as being manipulated (haha!) by looking at Florida (have to love Kathrine Harris) and Ohio (thanks Ken Blackwell) as Repub manipulations. From disenfranchising to ballot manipulations the screams of foul were heard across the country - but how quickly they were cast aside.

The tactics in use at this moment run the gamut from personal confrontations with threats of deportation, voter registrations are invalid, and blacks are being threatened with arrests at the polls. In New Mexico, one Republican lawyer has hired an individual who is making house calls to "legal" immigrants, and alluding that their votes will not be counted and they face being deported.

West Virginia and Virginia are having problems with the electronic voting machines and the local elections personnel are blaming the "errors" on the voters, i.e., they are not careful enough to push the right name. These are cases where one name may be touched at the top of the screen (say for State Attorney General or something), yet John McCain's name which is much lower on the screen will be checked. This is not voter mistakes - this would be a mechanical defect - engineered by whom? Now I will show my ignorance - who contracts for these companies that make the machines? Are there maybe kickbacks involved somewhere along the line? I believe one of the first voting machines used was made by Diebold (in Ohio), and now all the machines in use are by another company.

The bottom line is, that politics will always take center stage when it comes to major purchases on a state level that affect a Federal issue. This would be the reason I chose to vote absentee this year - as I have always been the first to show up at the polls for quite some time. At least with a paper ballot - I do not run the risk of my vote automatically being changed....I just run the risk of it to mysteriously come up missing, either through the Postal system or within the Board of Elections.

One year (2004 I believe), theson knew he was going to be out of the country and we went to the Board of Elections to see if he could get an absentee ballot, which we were informed that he could vote early, right there and then. Aha, the catch, they had no record of him voting before (he had not missed an election since turning 18), and he was relegated to filing a provisional ballot. I don't have problems with a provisional ballot, if it is definitely going to "count". My problem is why are your (BOE) records deficient? No answers, and I am sure no one took the time to track down where this error originated.

This past May, for the Primary election, I tried to get an abesentee ballot for theson, which I could FedEx to him in Egypt - OH NO!! Not allowed. The Board of Elections would have to mail the ballot utilizing the USPS - and no matter how much explaining I gave them - United States mail would NOT get through - they did it anyway. Surprise, surprise - he never received his ballot. In their wildest dreams, these institutions stil do not hire the most intelligent individuals, or even those who will go the "extra mile" to ensure honesty and fairness. I don't have all the answers, but something has to be done to ensure fairness to all and that there votes WILL count on election day.

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About Me

Born and raised in Parkersburg, WV - moved to Bellaire, Ohio in 1974. I am the proud mother of 3 and grandmother of 3. Opinionated of course and political follower. Blog as a therapeutic outlet - whether it makes sense or not. Enjoy.